The heirs of Victor Hotch will block off a river access site at 19 Mile Haines Highway, saying they’re concerned about infringement on private property rights there.
The site has been used for about 20 years as a boat launch and take-out by commercial tour operator Chilkat Guides.
“If a commercial business can move in on it, what’s to stop someone else?” said Stan Hotch, who said he is serving as a representative of Victor Hotch’s heirs. “I was asked to block the road off and I’m covering all my bases.”
Chilkat Guides owner Bart Henderson said the action took him by surprise, as village officials have previously given permission for use of the site. When trees were dropped across the road there last month, blocking access, the company checked and again was reassured by village officials that its use was okay, Henderson said.
“It might be a question of whose permission we were supposed to be getting,” said Henderson, who said his company has an alternate site it can use at 21 Mile.
Kimberley Strong, a Klukwan village council member who previously served as council president, said the issue may have been exacerbated by a state trooper statement last month about a public use ramp there surrounded by Native land.
“The state said it was a public access ramp. It’s not,” Strong said. “It’s on a Native allotment. Chilkat Guides had permission to use that ramp. How the state said it was a public access ramp was what was upsetting. It’s never been a public access ramp. For allottees who have that allotment, it’s their property.”
Stan Hotch said he posted eight “no trespassing” signs on the property last July, but they were taken down. “I was working for the village last year when I posted them and they were all pulled down.” Hotch said he didn’t fall the trees blocking access last month, but said that rocks and earth used twice previously to keep people off the property have been removed.
“I don’t want anybody getting a hold of me. I just want it blocked off. It’s been blocked off before and it’s been opened up. If I go this route, they can just prosecute (users of the site) next time,” Hotch said. He said the allotment acreage stretches from 20 Mile to the edge of a residential subdivision east of the 19 Mile slide.
“I was waiting for the village to do something, and they didn’t do anything,” Stan Hotch said. The village is supposed to be keeping people from using it. I checked with (village) elders and sent them (a statement) that I sent (the newspaper) and they said they liked it.”
Guiding company owner Henderson said he’s seen “no trespassing” signs at the site previously, but said he was told they applied not to his company but to people setting up fish camps at the site. Henderson said his company has routinely cleaned up the property when trash is dumped there by other users.
“We go in the spring and clean it up. We put a (portable toilet) there and maintain that. We’ve always had a good-neighbor policy and have taken good care of that area. We always assumed it was Native land. We never questioned that,” Henderson said.
His company has worked cooperatively with the village previously, including on tourism ventures, he said.
He said the issue pointed to a larger need for the state to establish public-use put-ins at multiple locations along the river. The river’s waters are public, but access to the water is lacking, he said. “The state can’t figure out we need a public access boat ramp that everybody can use. They don’t need to be million-dollar ramps.”
The community should appeal to the state to develop such access sites, Henderson said.
The state considered an access site near 25 Mile recently in conjunction with replacing Wells Bridge, but backed off the idea, citing opposition, including testimony against the proposal from Klukwan villagers.